


Aint Talkin' Bout Love

by BigScaryDinos



Category: Bandersnatch - Fandom, Black Mirror, Black Mirror : Bandersnatch
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Ficlet, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Scent Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 02:38:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17296157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigScaryDinos/pseuds/BigScaryDinos
Summary: Colin smelled very good all the time and poor Stefan just wants to get this video game done.





	Aint Talkin' Bout Love

 

His smell was the most surprising part of him honestly. At a first glance you would think he would smell like weed or hair dye or something artificial based purely on the way he appeared. He should smell the way a dirty punk should. He should have his own stench; but Colin, well he wasn’t a dirty punk. He was an actual millionaire and the few people who were able to pick up the scent were shocked. 

 

He always smelled like Jasmine. Some days it was overwhelming, other days it was faint. His entire apartment smelled like teak wood and sage. His clothes smelled clean. His fingernails never had dirt under them. His glasses never had smudges. His jeans were ripped only because he had paid for them that way. His rosy checks were from taking shots in the middle of the work day instead of actual work.   


 

Stefan was somehow always pleasantly shocked when he got close enough for his lips to make contact, although he was very rarely the first to touch. Not that he wasn't allowed, but rather he was always on edge. Always second guessing himself; _is this even allowed?_ Colin was perfumy and sweet and summery even during the Christmas push which happened to take place months prior to the holiday itself. The last minute changes consisted of Mohan popping over his house totally unannounced and flashing his thousand dollar watch while he spread out photos of test audiences.  _ T hey want a different ending .  _

 

Colin would be sitting tucked into a ball on Stefan’s father’s well worn La-Z-Boy with his eyes only thin slits behind his glasses, just watching and waiting. He would thumb his bottom lip and chew his tongue, light up a cigarette silently.  _Who doesn’t want a different ending? _ He would whisper later, as they said their goodbyes sometimes far past midnight in a dimly lit bar. They couldn’t always go back to the apartment, and lying to his already suspicious father was bad enough to stay away most nights. His father was mostly only suspicious about drug use and nothing else - yet.   


 

_Kitty gets it, she just isn’t always thrilled. _

 

Stefan got it, with the Jasmine poisoning his nostrils he would silently pray for one more second, and Colin would look apologetic. As David Lee Roth once said,  _ my love is rotten to the core .  _ That was loving Colin. It was toxic, but necessary and there was no way you could avoid it once you dipped a toe into the waters you were stuck. It sucked you in and made you weak and needy. Stefan understood Kitty with his whole self because he too was too deep in it. Colin was dangerous. A black hole. These crazy thoughts, these idyllic fantasies where everything could be fixed again and again and again. 

 

Don’t like it? Try again. That wasn’t true, there was no try and try again. Sometimes things just were, and while Stefan slaved over the game he tried not to think of Jasmine or dead straw like hair cropped so close to the scalp you could see skin or soft thin fingers wrapped around his shoulders and kneading the tight muscles there. He could imagine the voice whispering encouragement into his ear. _It's looking good, gonna turn out amazing. Amazing. Gonna fly off the shelves._  


 

It was **too** distracting. He stopped answering the calls; just all of them. Which was bad, very bad. His dad has to screen them and even then blindly told Colin that Stefan just wasn’t available. Was busy or out with his friends. They all knew he hadn’t had friends since grade school. He was at therapy. Colin only called twice; as far as Stefan understood. It was that simple to shake him and Stefan couldn't help but feel a little dissapointed. Soon **only** Mohan would show up at his house with concept art of the box.  _ I think red would be the best color for the font here, it really would pop off the shelves.  _

 

After the holidays, after the game, after the new year - Colin would come into play; Stefan thought and promised himself. Soon even with enough time apart even the smell left his brain, was only a ghost in the corners of the places he hadn’t had time to even check. 

 

It was December 1st when a plain brown box was on his front door. No card, just marker etched onto the side of the. 

 

_ Merry Early XMAS.  _

 

No name, no return address and for one second there was a fleeting concern of danger. Then it was dismissed and unwrapped. 

 

It was a three wick Jasmine scented candle. 

 

He placed it by his computer and picked up the phone. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Totally unrelated to everything BUT I would so love to do at least one little ficlet a month for the year of 2019; so let's see how it goes. If you like this one drop me a comment <3


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